Yea this is a long post, I know, but this is a good subject.
I've got a mint Nirvana 'Sliver' T that I was given back in school from our Drummer who had an extra one he had and for some reason passed it on to me if I wanted to have it. Sure! I'll take anything as long as it's free.
It's brand new, never worn. I haven't listened to Nirvana in more than 20 years, and have this unspoken dislike towards typical Nirvana fans in general. (That's a whole other topic)
I see those going for F-off prices bigtime, but will never cash in.
Same with the Dead Kennedy's Shirts too.
Had a vintage clothing picker go through my collection a few times and hose me for all I was worth and I learned to live with it...but when they were after my T-shirt stash, no way...I sold everything else I didn't want to sell for less than I wanted to sell it for, but not the Shirts. They can't have those at any price.
There's a bit of a thing about the T-shirts, the ones where you had to actually 'Be there' to get one.
There's a bit of a status thing that goes with that, I'm not quite sure how to define.
One example I can think of off the top:
I used to do roofing with an older crackhead guy who once wore his original Ozzy Bark at the moon T-shirt to work, it was faded and worn thin...I was like 'dude that thing is a collectors item now are you sure you want to wear it working it to death?' and he kinda was like 'I got this shirt at the concert back in 198- on that tour' and I don't know he just didn't care about the collectors value as much as his own personal pride in wearing it as a reminder of the good times...something like that.
He still wears it out, like it's the most non-poser thing ever.
You remember your first concert.
I duno, back to my original thing about Keeping my T-shirts...I couldn't sell them, but I don't know what it was that little voice in my head and this feeling of like...No, you can't have the T-shirts...not the shirts.
I don't have a lot of band shirts or anything even, most of them are vintage 70's 80's ones I picked up at the thrift stores that are too precious to let other people wear out, you know? They'll just get trashed if someone doesn't save them.
At that point you're not putting a price on things, it goes far beyond that.
"Back off!! Get your own Sandwich!!!"
